Editing Changelog (section)

== v0.49.0 — RIFT RANKS — The Staircase Begins ==
* '''The first step of the staircase.''' For everyone who has walked the [[Caves#The Amber Door|Amber Door]], the three rift zones reveal what was always underneath: today's four boss fights were only GAMMA RANK. Two harder cuts open above each — BETA at 1.5× difficulty paying 45 Rift Shards, ALPHA at 2× paying 75 — listed under their zone exactly like arena tiers, with mastery, tooltips and the battle screen all working unchanged.
* '''Harder does not mean unfair.''' A rank's damage arrives in more, smaller strikes: the worst single hit at Alpha is the same size as at Gamma — the fight is longer, never spikier. That promise is enforced by the balance suite, not just written here.
* '''Earn your way up.''' Beta reveals after 8 wins against that boss; Alpha after 8 Beta wins. Every rank card names exactly where you stand — "Win it 8× to reveal — 3/8" — and every boss card now counts its wins.
* '''Rift sigils.''' Every Beta or Alpha attempt costs one sigil, minted automatically every 12 rift patrol wins — the rank row's chip tracks your purse and the next mint. The Sigil Press (1,800 shards, one-off) quickens the mint to every 10.
* '''The riftheart relic.''' Alpha bosses alone carry it: a 6% drop, guaranteed by your 25th Alpha win, worth 8,000 amber — and held, it steadies every rift fight (+25 score, its own line in the strength breakdown). It survives future ascensions in the Trophy Case.
* '''The bazaar grows.''' Three offers appear at count 1: the Quality Whetstone (120) and Primal Catalyst (400) — fuels for staircase systems still to come, worth hoarding now — and the Sigil Press (1,800).
* '''New score to chase.''' Rank first-clears feed your ascension score: 60 per Beta, 100 per Alpha — 640 points toward the next walk through the Door.
* Below one ascension nothing changes — same fights, same drops, same odds, byte for byte. The staircase's next rungs, the Warden's Bounty Board and Completion Log ranks, arrive as their own updates.